how books are chosen | editor's books

illustration: Jack Kerouac's manuscript for On The Road
which he set as one long taped together manuscript
which he wrote on his typewriter. He said he taped
the pages together because he did not want to
interupt the flow of his writing and his thoughts.
This is just a small section of the manuscript. An original of Ulysses, 2nd pic.



How books are chosen will be a constant running theme of this course because it is a part and parcel of books that we edit. It is what we choose to edit, and for this reason, we learn how to not only edit and line-edit books, but really select books for publication, turn-down other manuscripts and query letters, read proposals and evaluate them, negotiate contracts as will perhaps likely be one day part of our job and also, I hope, participate in this course in a very active way, no matter how shy you may be (I too am shy, yet have to over-come this every week I speak before you and every time I go to an ed. board meeting). You have to stand up as an Editor or even as a Professor to convince, to at the end of the day, hopefully, inspire others to move into the field that you have chosen. Editing, in this way, is as I and others have said, an almost calling or faith. We do this on a wish and a prayer, but with a solid background. That is our goal here. Moving on... and keeping this in mind...

There are “Editor’s Books” – books that “move us”. What is your instinct and your passion? What tells you that a book is truly unique and you should publish it. Some people are sure that no manuscript that is truly great will go "undiscovered." Maybe the are right is right, maybe they are wrong wrong. Many factors come into play as we discussed. Keep those in mind as you write up your weekly e-mail. For class discussion, what do you think about books that are truly great not being discovered? Do you believe that a truly great book will be discovered eventually?

In your career as an editor, there is no doubt you are going to have to publish a lot of books that the publisher wants you to publish and that do you want to publish yourself. Books that you personally would not publish but have no choice in this case. If this happens, then you just have to suck it up like anyone and do it because this is what keeps the house the running.

Editors Books - Your Intuition & Instinct & How This Comes into Play...
But every now and then, once you have proven yourself a good worker in some way or a good editor, you may come across something truly unique. It may just be a “voice” and by voice I shouldn’t say “just” for discovering a new “voice” is wonderful thing – it’s a new way of telling a story and a new way of writing information that makes it different from any other writing. In a sense, that is an Editor’s Book.

But a true Editor’s Book is a book that does something that has never been done before. Authors who truly revolutionized writing; authors like;

Paul Bowles
John Barth
Jack Kerouac
Marguerite Duras
Georges Perec
Harry Mathews
William Gass
Nicholson Baker
David Foster Wallace
Zadie Smith
John Irving
William Faulkner... to name but a few.

We don’t have to like all of these authors, but they are more contemporary authors and this is why I chose them. We also have chosen Joyce who is also an Editor’s Author to be sure, but these authors’ are more than just contemporary. They give us, have given history, something that no other author has given us, and this is what we look for. If you can think of others authors who fit the bill and who have truly changed the face of writing, great. Again, even I don’t like the work of all of these authors, but their work is exceptional in some way and that is what counts the most. It is not about having a "voice", it is about changing how writing is written. It may even take us a while to get used to the style of writing. These writers first books may not do so well, but in due course, they will succeed, and that is what is the true test here. This is where an Editor succeeds.

Think of the Oulipo school of writers – the French school of writers who play word games (see link or Google the word) – in a sense they revolutionized and revolutionize (though I am not sure how active they are now) writing during their time and today. Harry Mathews is an Oulipo writer, so is Georges Perec who wrote the book A Void, entirely without the letter "e", and even more amazing, the book was translated into English, also without the letter "e". Another writer, a French writer is Jean Echenoz, but he is only available in French for the most part - he too could be considered an Editor's Author because he just won Le Prix Goncourt for his unique style of writing (this is like winning the Pulitzer).

We spoke about the history of Ulysses by Joyce: - first published by Sylvia Beach at Shakespeare and Company after it had been serialized in magazines. She published it in 1822. It was banned in the United States as pornography and if you were caught bringing it out or in then you could be prosecuted for distributing pornography.

Finally, Bennet Serf, one of the co-founders of Random House (he Donald Klopefer formed the house in the 1920s). Serf felt so passionately about the book that he took it before Judge Woolsey and won and Ulysses was granted to be published in the United States on December 6th, 1933. It was published by Random House in 1934. Random House got its name because according to Serf, books were published "at random" - just books they liked or felt moved to published - hence the name of the house.

A Cuban author, Raul Rivero, noted for his political writings (though not connected to Joyce,) said something that was quite notable and humorous, “It’s a very special book because it was edited by the police.”

Hopefully, this will not happen to your Editor’s Books – a book you truly love and is your "baby" as you shepherd it through the editorial process...That said, your ultimate goal is to publish a book thtat has the lasting power of a book like Uylesses and it is possible. Classics are built through the years and you may not even know you have published a classic until many years later - or even after you are dead! A classic is a book that does not have a short half-life, but instead, never dies.